Stunning stimulus employment failure
ST. LOUIS (Alpha Found) — The WSJ, among other outlets, has some shocking numbers on the invisible impact of the $787 billion stimulus package. More details will be released today on the administration’s Recovery.gov site.
More than half a year after the stimulus package was ushered through with dire warnings about the need for urgent action, just $269 billion has been spent. The figures confirm that much of it has been wasted.
The numbers come from scrutiny of infrastructure and social program spending undertaken by contractors. Out of $16 billion “rushed” into saving the economy via this area, just $2bn has been spent. Just 30,000 jobs have been saved. Not created, just saved.
In other words, taxpayers have spent $65,826 to save a pittance of jobs.
Meanwhile, the newly unemployed expanded by 514,000 in September. The AP is spinning that positively since it is fewer jobs lost than the previous months. Sorry, that does not erase the staggering magnitude of losing half a million jobs a month for month-after-month.
One wonders how much of the $65,826 actually found its way to the employees as opposed to overheads and taxes.
The Portland Business Journal reports that $1bn has been spent in Oregon. The claimed jobs saved runs at 8,000. That’s a cool quarter million dollars per job saved… Nice work if you can get it.
Oh, you can, at General Motors & Chrysler. The government has spent $100 bn bailing out those losers which translated to $300,000 per job saved at those companies. Disgusting welfare.
It is estimated that 2.4 million jobs have been lost since the passage of the stimulus. Another way to look at it is that the government could have set aside $100 billion for 1 year to provide each of those people with $40,000.
Which would have been more effective? It’s not hard to guess. 
© 2009, Alpha Found.
